Do I know what I'm doing? Cognitive dissonance and action identification theory

• Autores: Valérie Fointiat, Audrey Pelt
• Localización: The Spanish Journal of Psychology, ISSN 1138-7416, Vol. 18, 2015, 6 págs.
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1017/sjp.2015.93
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • Our main purpose was to explore hypotheses derived from the Identification of Action Theory in a particular situation that is, a dissonant situation. Thus, we varied the identification (low versus high-level) of a problematic behavior (to stop speaking for 24 hours) in the forced compliance paradigm. Two modes of dissonance reduction were presented: cognitive rationalization (classical attitude-change) and behavioral rationalization (target behavior: to stop speaking for 48 hours). As predicted, the results showed that high-level identity of action leads to cognitive rationalization whereas low-level identity leads to behavioural rationalization. Thus, participants identifying the problematic behavior at a low-level were more inclined to accept the target behavior, compared with participants identifying their problematic behavior at a higher-level. These results are of particular interest for understanding the extent to which the understanding of the discrepant act interferes with the cognitive processes of dissonance reduction.

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